'Damning' evidence of 'eye-poked' Spikes surfaces

Posted by John Taylor on November 2, 2009, 3:21 PM EDT

As you all know by now, Florida’s All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes was handed a half-game suspension earlier today for trying to give a quasi-prostate exam to the eyes of Georgia running back Washaun Ealey.

In announcing the suspension, head coach Urban Meyer said that part of the reason for Spikes’ actions was the fact that the LB was poked in the eye earlier in the game.

Thanks to new reader “irishcuban”, we were pointed in the right direction to poke around (that’s what she said) and discovered the “damning” evidence being referred to.

Here’s the clip, and you be the judge. And jury. An executioner:

This is the damning evidence of Spikes being wronged?

To my eyes — and reviewing it like the Zapruder footage — it looked like a football play in which the Georgia player was attempting to block Spikes and his hands slid up the shoulder pads and knocked his lid off. Or it was even a case of the UGA player’s helmet that knocked Spikes’ helmet off.

And was it even his eyes that were hurt in this case? At the :09 mark, it looks as if Spikes reaches up to grab his ear, indicating it was the helmet being ripped off that did the damage and not some intentional eye rake.

But, certainly, the hands sliding up and knocking off the helmet could’ve led to Spikes being grazed across his eyes accidentally.

That is a far, far cry from intentionally jamming your fingers into a face mask and attempting to take a person’s eyes out.

Then again, what do we know. We’re just a bunch of them there Gator Haters.

Poor baby. Another bad seed at Florida. Even Ray Lewis and Reggie Bush are shaking their heads in disbelief at the character issues found within this program.
Spikes cost himself some draft position, perhaps. Oh, and way to detract from Tebow’s record-setting day, dummy.

jmgreene516 says:Nov 2, 2009 3:33 PM

Here is the actual video where he retaliates from the above video. This may change your opinion Tayolor.

gator_prof says:Nov 2, 2009 3:53 PM

A little perspective here…
1) This is football, not ball room dancing. It is a rough sport, played by rough men trying to injure one another, sometimes cleanly, sometimes not so cleanly. It doesn’t make it right, but the whining around here makes it seem like these guys never, ever try to hurt one another.
2) The UGA player was unhurt, unscratched, no worse for the wear…thankfully.
3) This sort of thing (eye gouging, body part twisting, etc.) goes on at the bottom of piles all of the time…it doesn’t make it right.
4) Spikes was trying to hurt UGA player about as much as the UGA was when he hit Tebow waaaayyyy late. The difference is, Taylor isn’t whining about it…
Spikes was wrong and stupid as he has just damaged his reputation and for a guy going into the NFL, that equals loss of cash.
All in all, a token slap on the wrist is all that could be expected. Had the UGA player been injured, the punishment would be different. Society in general is that way. It is like sentencing for attempted murder vs. murder…why reward someone with a lesser sentence for failure to execute their plan? Same thing happened here with Spikes.

This is not the play. Early in the game one of the tackles for UGA got his hands in Spikes face mask and most likely was trying to eye gouge him. The tackle (#78 I believe) was penalized for 15 yards on the play. The play above was simply pikes getting his helmet knocked off and another player hitting him in the head just after his helmet popped off. Most likely his facemask grazed against Spikes face at impact.

irishcuban says:Nov 2, 2009 4:56 PM

The entire game was chippy…”John”. I wonder how this will be covered on ESPN2 during the Vandy game… no doubt they will run the replay of Spikes eye “gauging” incident, but will they more lilly than not show the clip above or the late hit on Tebow or some of the other crap that went on…during that bitter feud. It is interesting though, that the UGA players have not come out and made a big deal about it in the media…they did not even complain after the “assult” occurred. Crazy, but I guess it gives you something to write about….and hater-nation another stone to cast.

gator_prof says:Nov 2, 2009 5:11 PM

In terms of chippy, I don’t see Mr. Taylor whining about the exceptionally late hit to the head on a QB recovering from a concussion by Mr. Nick Williams.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDvFbD7wIAg
Like I said, it is part of the game.

Jagdbaer says:Nov 2, 2009 5:25 PM

“An eye for an eye” shouldn’t be condoned but I do understand why Brandon Spikes did what he did.

inthetrenches says:Nov 2, 2009 7:42 PM

plfalzar, any time we don’t shower a player with relentless praise after performing well while writing an article about a different topic (scroll up to the top, the name of the article is just above the “Posted by John Taylor”) means we’re trying to detract from their great performance. Or, a much less likely possibility is that we’re writing an article about a different topic.
If you’re unfamiliar with sarcasm, don’t be too concerned. It’s a fairly new concept. Dummy.

Deb says:Nov 2, 2009 7:54 PM

‘Tis true that players do a lot of nasty things to one another at the bottom of pileups (now there’s the place for your prostate analogies, John). But while I’m sure they’re painful (being a woman, I can’t really speak from experience, but I take it on faith), they’re not quite as egregious as this eye-gouging was. It looked psychotic–over and beyond the usual late hits, etc., that all teams and players suffer. That’s why I suggested a little counseling from a good sports therapist. Football IS a violent sport, and if Spikes is going to the NFL, he needs to be able to keep that violence in check.
But … it’s done now. The coach addressed it, as he should have. Story over. Let’s move on.

kikdown says:Nov 3, 2009 9:04 AM

The first half suspension is a joke, it shows that Urban Meyer, the University of Florida and the SEC are OK with thuggery by their players, but a coach beter not comment on bad officiating.